Pokemon: Mind and Soul (Retry) [IC / PG / Probably Not Accepting / Co-Hosted by Skaia]

[Tiamat's Circus 117]

Anima couldn’t help but feel her smile try to falter, for a moment, as she heard about this ‘ghost’. Of course, it was likely that they existed; but the meat of the story was… Something else. It was almost ominous sounding, the way one of their servants offered to ‘show them’ what happened, only to never be seen again. And then, for her parents to have told her she had to let go… Perhaps, then, was the Servant the ghost in the story, and not the grandfather? Or had the parents been responsible for the Servants’ grandfather’s death? Or, perhaps even more... had the servant been planning to kill Anneliese…?!

Only the first concept seemed remotely… Interesting, from a supernatural perspective. The other two aspects, however…

Anima was only taken from this state of mind, as Jacklyn arrived to greet them… And immediately mentioned the man in the mask. She frowned, for a moment; visibly, before nodding. “...Actually, I will… Definitely believe you,” Anima chuckled lightly, rubbing at the side of her neck. “His name was Brady, and he was weird as…” she trailed off, letting the others carry on the conversation for a moment as she set to softening her expression. It was then, of course, that Jacklyn suggested they take a photo of them with the ‘first major landmark’ of their journey…

The weird, half-sunken statue.

“Oh, er... Right, of course, I can take your photos!” Anima almost immediately jumped in, voice a bit more enthusiastic than it should have been, as long as she didn’t have to…

"Oh, I'll take one for you guys if you want too!" 

“Huh?” Anima paused for a moment, before shaking her head slightly. “No, you, um, you don’t have to do that,” she murmured, grip on Confi tightening ever so slightly as she gave an apologetic smile. “I, er… Confi’s camera-shy,” she tried to excuse herself; even if it was a flimsy lie, it was one that couldn’t easily be contested… And if she didn’t want to admit, or didn’t want to voice that she wasn’t comfortable having her photo taken, she didn’t have to. Instead, without waiting for any further prompting, she knelt down and put Confi down. She then rummaged through her backpack for a moment, to pull out her PokeDex.

It was scratched up, been repaired, had buttons replaced and had been bashed several times… All by people who had owned it before Anima, and before she had gotten it, but it was hers; and the camera, at least, functioned well enough to take some pictures of her friends. It stalled for a moment as she opened the camera, but after a second, she saw a reasonably clear picture come onto the screen, and set about lining it up to catch both Anneliese and Jacklyn… Even as their faces scrunched up. “Ah… Right, that thing...” she murmured, before spamming the picture button roughly ten times in quick succession.

It was always best to go for quantity, and then pick out the best one to have printed, she had been told.

After that moment of repeatedly taking photos, she quickly folded the PokeDex back closed, before stuffing it back in her backpack. “Well then--” she began, acutely aware of the pounding headache the statue was likely giving her friends, and hoping to alleviate that pain for them. “We should move on now, we, uh, we don’t want to burn too much daylight on this leg of our, er, adventure, after all!” she explained, already beginning to move on herself. Hopefully, if she was lucky, they’d follow without questioning the strangeness of the statue--

For as long as they didn’t question it, she didn’t have to question it.

[yui 577]

“Does being an aspiring professor mean you know a lot about caring for Pokemon? Is there any advice you could give me with Peat? I make sure to brush and oil his fur every night, and I help him pick his teeth and claws clean too."

"Weeeell..." Not really...

Now that he'd mentioned it, it was probably best to double-check Arthur. He'd just been recovered from a kidnapping, after all, and Bridget wouldn't forgive herself if she was so caught up in having him back that she overlooked some sort of injury on the Trapinch's part. Thus, as the team continued along Route 102, did Bridget pop open Arthur's poke ball and give the creature a good, thorough inspection. And, like the impudent toddler it could very well pass for when not playing, Arthur resisted her every step of the way.

"What kinda stuff do you have to do for Artur?”

"'E's real fussy about 'is care, actually," Bridet answered, as she tried to part-coax Arthur into opening his mouth, part-pry it open herself. "Won't let me do anyfin' for 'im, 'side from feedin' and playin' wiv 'im. C'mon Arfur, open up, I'm makin' sure you're not hurt!" After several defiant chirps and chitters, and no small amount of trying to wriggle out of Bridget's grip, the Trapinch finally relented, and opened his maw of a mouth for Bridget to investigate. As she confirmed there was nothing of concern inside his mouth, and continued checking the rest of his body for anything that could be a possible concern, she remarked "See what I mean? Best I can do is force 'im to take a bath when he's dirty, and that should be its own category of battle."

As if to prove her point, the mere mention of the word "bath" elicited a growl of obvious protest from Arthur, and further attempts to escape Bridget's grasp. The Trapinch only settled down once it seemed to process Bridget was just talking about baths, and not saying it was time to take one.

"Pokemon care isn't really somefin' I know much about though. And I 'aven't seen that species until gettin' to Korova, either. Sorry. Peat looks healfy 'n' happy though. I'm sure anyone who knows more about care stuff would say you're doin' a good job."

The bog up ahead was, as bogs went, certainly a bog. Nate and Quinn went on ahead into the marshy wetness with varying degrees of effectiveness. Bridget followed suit, taking to the marsh with a sense of familiarity gained from some field research back in certain parts of Galar. Which isn't to say she was just at home in a marsh as on dry land, but between having put up with this sort of terrain before, and having the appropriate footwear for the job, it was safe to say Bridget was faring better than her peers right now.

Of bigger concern to her was the statue in the middle of it all. People could be fickle creatures sometimes, but Bridget was always willing to trust a pokemon. And as she eyed the statue's surroundings, she couldn't help but notice almost all of them were avoiding the statue. Peat even refused to follow Nate right up to it, which was an immediate red flag to her. She wasn't an art history major, or a geologist, or anything else that could potentially pertain to identifying a statue, but if all the local wildlife was avoiding that thing, it couldn't be anything but bad news, as far as Bridget was concerned. As much as she wanted to get up close and inspect the statue for herself - really wanted to, more than usual - Bridget made a point to keep her distance, and to keep an eye on the other two in case some sort of timely intervention was needed.

Plus, somebody had to make sure Arthur wouldn't get into trouble. Bridget looked down to Arthur... only to find that while she was keeping a watchful eye on Quinn & Nate, her pokemon had slipped away, and was now proudly trotting about in the bog. Gonna have to give him a bath later. Might as well make something of this! Not keeping her attention away from her teammates for too long at any point, Bridget followed her Trapinch companion through the water and mud, then pointed at the first pokemon to cross Arthur's path. A Solosis that was otherwise minding its own business. "Let's blow off some steam, Arfur! Give it a good Bite!"

Arthur, for one, seemed all too happy to oblige, charging up to the stray Solosis as best it could, jaws wide open and ready to snap shut on its new quarry.

[Skaia 579]

Jacklyn didn't really pay much mind to Anneliese's comment but looked over to Anima and smiled as they got prepared to take a picture. With the deed done the girl walked over and said, "thanks a lot Anima!" It was a shame to her that Anima didn't want to get into the picture as well. After all they were an adventuring team and it wouldn't do well to not have all of their teammates in a photo of cool stuff, but she couldn't do anything about Confi being camera shy and since Confi was as much as part of their group as Anima was so she would've liked for them to both be in it. She also wasn't feeling one hundred percent right now and felt like if she was going to force the issue it would not be at this statue as she wanted to just get a move on from it as fast as possible. However, she would not let this problem just pass by, and as she started to walk down the road she thought about what to do at the next landmark. "Maybe an ambush..." the girl muttered to herself. 

"Alright gang!" The girl shouted, as they made some distance, "Anima was right! The day is still young and our legs are still raring to go! So let's get going!" As the girl wandered further down the road she opened her map up saying, "we've got one more place to hit up on this island before our adventure gets started! Well it already started," the girl thought out loud before correcting herself saying, "but like, for real this time! Well, realer than the real it was already. Something like that at least. So, let's leave this route in the dust before the day's end gang!" 

[LordCowCow 842]

Team BQN

While Bridget was having a relatively normal time in battle with a wild Pokemon the other two were experiencing something truly bizarre.

As Quinn moved around the statue they would find that there wasn't much of a change to how the statue itself felt. However the longer they kept in contact the more the noise in their head grew more insistent. While they couldn't make out the words it almost felt like they were desperately trying to tell Quinn something important.

If Nate were to touch the statue he would experience much the same that Quinn had. With one clear difference. While he, too, would hear whispering in the back of his head the feeling behind it seemed different. It was more demanding. As if trying to order Nate to do something. But what was it the voice wanted? He couldn't quite tell.

Right when the two of them felt they could almost make out what the words were they would hear a "Oooweeeooo" noise coming from outside their head instead of inside.

Distracted as they all were none of them would have noticed where it came from but suddenly a Malamar, on the larger side of things, landed from above near where the statue was.

And it looked like it was ready to attack the duo touching it.

Spoiler

Sorry Hakima, no catching this one.

Also I know Inkay evolves at level 30. This is not level 30. I am cheating. I suppose can think of this as something similar to a Totem Pokemon. A "boss Pokemon" of an area.

I'll give the moves right off the bat to make it easier for you to write it as you want, if you want info or want to talk to each other on what to do you can still.

Hypnosis, Topsy Turvy, Psywave, Tackle

Gonna also make a call about sleep moves in that they don't immediately put to fully asleep in battle because frankly that's unfun for writing purposes. It makes them sleepy and COULD put them to sleep but not an automatic thing.

---

Team JAA/AJA/AAJ

“I, er… Confi’s camera-shy,”

"Oh I know about this! Is it about how cameras steal your soul? I was told that once but my parents said that it was 'nonsense that those who do not understand the technology made up' but I suppose Confi is a Pokemon so of course they would not understand."

After taking the photo Anneliese would insist on looking at it, getting as close as possible to Anima in the process while expressing her glee at seeing them together like that. "It is a shame about Confi, though, it would be nice to have a picture with you as well so that I may show it to my parents when I return so they can see the friends that I have made."

"but like, for real this time! Well, realer than the real it was already. Something like that at least. So, let's leave this route in the dust before the day's end gang!" 

"Oh goodness! I didn't realize there were levels to the realness of things! There is still so much for me to learn about adventurers...."

The group set out again and made it a good way to the end of the route before Anneliese suddenly said, "by the way which one of you was whispering in my ear back by that very odd statue?"

On the way to the next city Anneliese seemed to remember that she intended to let Roland have some battles and, while walking, had him dart into the tall grass nearby to try and attack wild Pokemon that popped up. The Rockruff seemed nervous about this at first but upon its first level, and learning Sand Attack, it seemed a bit more confident. However it also seemed to be very intent on using its new move and their walk turned quite grimy as Roland began sending sand out in every direction.

---

They arrived at the next city, Islebury, sometime in the evening. Immediately they were hit by the strong scent of fish and it was clear to see why. Everywhere they went in the city they would find things related to fishing, competitive, casual, and commercial, all over. Many of the people they met were friendly but much of what they seemed to have to say also revolved around fishing.

The city was decently large though not anywhere near what one might call a "big city" but it also was the only way to get to the mainland easily.

It seemed that Leopold was not a fan of the smell because when Anneliese sent him out he immediately wanted to get back into his ball.

Eleanora, on the other hand, didn't even seem to notice as she perched herself on Anneliese's shoulder and stood stoically unmoving. Though she also continued to avoid eye contact with anyone and anything they passed.

Spoiler

You are now in the next city! If you wanted to do any other training make sure to mention it and let me know. There's a few things to do in the city but will leave it up to y'all.

C. Islesbury
Description: A safe harbor for ships traveling near the Korova Region, due to the storms that sometimes pop up around the outer edges, which has a natural port for ships to dock. Also the one place to find a boat to the mainland. Known mainly for its fishy smell but pleasant people. As well as the fishing competitions.

Major areas: Harbor. The city is at the edge of a cliff and the harbor is an area under the cliff where ships can go. Which has a dock with stairs leading up to the main city. Also where the fishing competition is held.

Encounters: Fishing. Magikarp, 75%. Goldeen, 20%. Remoraid, 4%. Feebass, 1%